248 ALAUDID2E. 



Pyrrhulauda melanauchen (Cab.). The Black-crowned 



Finch-Lark. 

 Pyrrhulauda melanauchen (Cab.), Hume, Cat. no. 760 bis. 



Mr. Scrope Doig found the nest of this species in Sind. He 

 says: "This bird, wherever there are sand-drifts, is very common 

 and is never, as far as my experience goes, found in company with 

 P. grisea. They breed at the end of February and beginning of 

 March, at the end of May and commencement of June, and again 

 in the end of August and beginning of September. One breeding- 

 place I found in this latter month was situated away from the 

 Narra, some 10 miles out in the desert near some salt deposits, and 

 w T here evidently rain had fallen, as there was a considerable growth 

 of grass. The nests were very similar to those of P. grisea both in 

 size and description, and were invariably placed at the root of 

 some tuft of grass, on the north side, evidently to be sheltered 

 from the hot wind. In this place I collected over forty eggs. 

 They are very similar to those of P. yrisea, perhaps, as a rule, more 

 boldly marked, and some of them had well-defined rings of colour 

 round the larger end. The normal number of eggs is two." 



The eggs seem to be typically rather elongated ovals, but they 

 vary a good deal in size and shape, the shell is fine, and in some 

 eggs has a tolerable amount of gloss, in others but little. There 

 are many types of eggs which are variable, like those of all Larks. 

 In one the ground-colour is a dull pale creamy stone-colour, and 

 the egg is everywhere mottled with tiny clouds of pale brownish 

 yellow and speckled with pale lilac, the markings heing everywhere 

 small and insignificant, but a little better marked in an irregular 

 zone round the large end. In another type the ground-colour is a 

 china-white. The large end of the egg is thickly spotted and 

 blotched with umber-browii intermingled with clouds of pale inky 

 grey, and spots and specks of the same two colours, chiefly the 

 former, are thinly scattered over the rest of the egg. In the first 

 type the shell was almost glossless and all the markings blurred 

 and insignificant ; in the second the shell has a good gloss and the 

 markings are all distinct, well-defined, and towards the large end 

 almost bold. Of course, intermediate forms occur. 



The eggs vary from 0-68 to 0-82 in length, and from 0-5 to 0-58 

 in breadth. 



